Last of the free market

Did you survive Black Friday? Were you out in the Black Friday shopping? Did you venture out on Thanksgiving to begin your holiday shopping? If you did, you were not alone, if you did not, you were not alone either. Black Friday originally got its name from retailers, marking when they began moving into the black, or began making a profit. It also marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Retailers soon began that they could capitalize on the people willing to save a few dollars. As the popularity grew, sales became greater, slashing prices and the crowds continued to grow. Once the crowds starting growing, the retailers responded by opening earlier and earlier until now, some are opening on Thanksgiving to start the holiday shopping season. Somehow, a debate has sprung up about stores opening on Thanksgiving. Where the debate came from, I have not figured out, I cannot even figure out why there is a debate. If a private company wants to open their doors on a holiday, they have that right. If someone wants to shop on a holiday, they also have that right. That is what is so great about a free market, if there is a demand for something, the market will produce a supply. I hear everyone weigh in on the issue and it seems like a bunch of people are against it, for two reasons. The first is the horror of making a person work during a holiday and the second is the greed of the people shopping, just to save a few dollars. Making someone work on a holiday, really? That’s an argument against it? How many other holidays are retail stores open? Last time I checked, I could shop on Valentine’s Day, that’s a day to be with loved ones. Not good enough, how about Nevada Day? I could shop on that day too. Even Memorial Day, I could go to the store and find a deal and Memorial Day is a day to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice so we have the right to shop on any day we want. Let me look at this a different way. What other employees have to work on Thanksgiving? Fire, police, ambulance and hospital workers have to work on Thanksgiving, I will grant you that they are emergency personal and we need those services. What about restaurant workers, you can find lots of restaurants that are open and serving all day and night. Why is there no outcry about them having to work? What about convenience stores and gas stations? I’ve been able to get gas on Thanksgiving, but no outcry for them or the fast food workers that have to work on Thanksgiving. Living in Las Vegas, should our casinos and hotels give all of their employees Thanksgiving off? We could just shut down the Strip for a day. The other reason why stores should be closed is because of the greedy consumer wanting to buy everything at a discount. Why should a consumer be restricted? If I want to buy something, I am sure that someone would be willing to accommodate me. What if I do not celebrate Thanksgiving, or do not have anyone to celebrate with on Thanksgiving? Who are you to judge me if I want to brave the crazy mobs and save a few dollars? I will say that it has gotten crazy out there with a worker being killed in 2008 and this year a lady being zapped with a stun gun, but that’s Black Friday, not Turkey Thursday. This should not even be a debate, the only people that should have this debate are the owners, whether they want to be open or not; or the consumers, whether they want to battle through the crowds of sale happy people. I am either at home or doing something with my family. I do not go shopping, but I am not against people who do, or the stores that open to satisfy the demands of the market. I actually like that where there is a demand, it is being met by the market. I am just waiting for the government to step in and take away more of our liberty. For links and references please click here.

Sgt Schultz in the White House

When I was a child, one of my favorite shows was “Hogan’s Heroes.” It was sit com set in World War II and based on a group of Allied POWs in a German Prison Camp. One of the main characters was Sgt. Schultz, a German guard whose famous catch phrase was “I see nothing. I know nothing.” Every time he would bellow that phrase, the audience would erupt with laughter. No one took him seriously, they weren’t supposed to but then he wasn’t the leader of a country. Listening to President Obama speak the other day about the revelation that the NSA was spying on foreign leaders made me think of Sgt. Schultz. Obama’s comment on the spying was he didn’t know anything. This time I didn’t hear the audience laughs, like they did at Sgt. Schultz. If it wasn’t real life, I might have laughed. Are we really supposed to believe that the President does not know what his own spy agency is doing? Maybe not knowing about one scandal is one thing, but is this the only thing the President knows nothing about? Hardly. Early in his presidency, Obama used the same defense when news of the Fast and Furious scandal broke. The ATF was selling guns to Mexican drug cartels and the US had no way of tracking those firearms and unlike Bush, did not notify the Mexican government of the American operation. This operation was came to light after a border agent, Brian Terry, was found murdered by weapons sold under Operation Fast & Furious. The ATF under Obama’s Justice Department apparently did not notify anyone in the White House and Obama didn’t learn about the operation until he saw it on the news. Another example of “I see nothing, I know nothing.” On the anniversary of the terror attacks on the World Trade Center, we were attacked in Libya. Even though Obama was briefed shortly after the attack began and the next morning blamed a video tape; he still went to the Sgt. Schultz defense. He didn’t know what was happening. He was briefed shortly after the attack began; he appeared in the morning (after disappearing all night) and blamed a video. So did he know or not? Well maybe he is just ignoring international scandals because he is focusing so hard on domestic issues. But we see the same defense when the IRS scandal broke. The IRS was found to be politically targeting conservative and tea party groups, which just happen to be Obama’s political enemy. How nice, especially since he didn’t know anything about it. The whole scandal was dumped on a couple of “rogue” employees in a regional office, even though there is evidence proving the orders came from the White House. But of course, Obama “sees nothing, knows nothing.” Are you laughing yet? Let me ask a serious question. What does Obama know? I bet he knows where his next family vacation is going to be. I bet he knows when his next round of golf is. I bet he knows where his next campaign stop is going to be. I bet he knows where the next illegal immigration rally is. It’s apparent by Obama’s own comments that he is unfit to hold the office of President, he sees nothing and he knows nothing. Is that really what we want out of a “leader?” For links from this article check out my examiner article here.

Bread and circuses, political misdirection

One of the greatest civilizations of the world was the Ancient Romans, they conquered most of the known world and at the end, and they couldn’t save themselves. The extravagant society crumbled upon itself. The government coffers ran dry; there were no more civilizations to conquer to replenish the treasury. How did this happen? How could one of the richest, most advanced civilizations simply crumble upon itself? Many reasons can be cited as to what caused the fall of the Roman Empire, the cheap slave labor created a system where citizens didn’t work. The luxurious lifestyle enjoyed by the citizens, the massive government spending on infrastructure and safety nets, political corruption, inflation and military spending. How could the people not see the collapse coming? That answer is simple; it was the bread and circuses. Bread and circuses refers to the concept that if you keep the people fed and entertained, they will be ignorant to everything going on around them. The Caesars had to import grain to feed the masses in Rome so people wouldn’t starve and to keep them entertained, they imported exotic animals and gladiators, recreated famous battles and held chariot races. While the people were busy at the coliseum, enjoying death battles and free food no one paid attention to the rampant inflation, political corruption or reckless government spending…until it was too late. The Roman satirist Juvenal is credited with the term, as he accused his fellow citizens of selling out for bribes of ‘bread and circuses.’ Many people are making the comparisons between the Roman Empire and United States. Some are even asking if we are Rome. The comparisons are easy to make. Inflation, the romans continued to coin money that contained less and less gold until the coins were worthless and the barter system so sprang up and workers wanted to be paid in goods, rather than worthless coin. The US has long since abandoned the gold standard and with quantitative easing, you can see the effects almost weekly as prices continue to rise to compensate for the dollar as it loses value. Do I even need to make examples of the political corruption, military spending or government spending? Record deficits, endless wars and crony capitalism should be easy enough to see, for those that aren’t even looking, let alone those that are looking. The United States and its citizens need to learn from the Ancient Romans and stop selling out for the bread and circuses and pay attention. We, Americans, are more concerned with the feast and the sporting event to pay attention to the massive political corruption and the massive military spending. We are more concerned with the blockbuster movie and large popcorn than record deficit spending and public works projects. We are more concerned with the barbecue and concert than the society’s moral decay and blatant inflation. Those that don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it, an apparently we haven’t learned from Ancient Rome.

America fails Marx communist test

A communist country is a centrally planned economy. Every aspect of the country’s economy is planned from the ruling elite. The state owns and controls the means of production. Karl Marx is considered the founder of communism, his book “The Communist Manifesto” he laid out the framework to turn a capitalist society into a communist economy. Marx could be considered the first community organizer, as his theory is based on convincing the middle and lower classes that they are being exploited by the upper class. The lower classes must rise up against the oppressors and take control of the means of production. Then, as the famous communist saying goes; from each according to his ability, to each according to his need. The key to Marx’s theory is the country must first be capitalist, capitalist societies are the only ones that produce capital and innovation; something needed if the lower classes is going to take over. Karl Marx created a test to see if a country was communist and according to his ten planks, the United States has become a communist country. Here are the ten planks and the American counterpart. Plank 1 - Abolition of private property and the application of all rents of land to public purposes. The United States equivalent – The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, Bureau of Land Management, property taxes. Do we really have private property? If you don’t pay the government, they will take your land. Americans also have to deal with eminent domain laws, where the government can take private property from private individuals, originally compensation was required and the taking had to be for public benefit. Now, the government has been unconstitutionally taking private property and not for public benefit. Instead it’s being used as payback, continuing the cycle of crony capitalism, at the expense of the people they are supposed to protect. Zoning laws also adversely affect private property; they regulate what a person can or can’t do on “their” property. Plank 2 - A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. The United States features the 16th Amendment, the social security act, state income taxes. As the liberals like to call it, paying your fair share. Exactly what is considered “fair share?” Nobody has been able to explain that, just that rich people are not paying their fair share. It’s not about paying their fair share; it’s about trying to make everyone equal. High progressive tax rates in France have driven high earners to abandon their citizenship and move to other countries. We have seen this in California and New York as well, as high progressive state income tax rates have made people leave their states in search of more tax friendly states. The high progressive tax rates also provide incentives for high earners to search for tax shelters or tax havens. Plank 3 - Abolition of all rights of inheritance. Americans call this “the death tax”, or the inheritance tax, probate laws, federal and state estate taxes. While in America, the government does not take all of a dead person’s estate, they certainly appear more than willing to take all of it. The government does a good job of breaking up family businesses and family farms when the heirs cannot afford the taxes being charged. So all the hard work to earn a nice house and/or car, savings, investments or businesses are now subject to a 40% tax, just because of the misfortune of dying. This puts a larger burden on the heirs at the worst possible time. There are many stories where the heirs cannot pay the death tax without liquidating everything that they just inherited. What is the point of working hard, saving money or owning anything if the government is going to take nearly half of your children’s inheritance? Plank 4 - Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. Government seizures, tax liens, RICO laws, and asset forfeiture laws used by the IRS, DEA, ATF. Everybody has heard the stories of the celebrities in trouble with the Internal Revenue Service and the stories all end the same way, with the government taking everything, the one I remember the most is Red Foxx. The Drug Enforcement Agency holds auctions where they sell all of the assets of those they have arrested. The RICO laws allow the government to confiscate anything they want as long as those assets could have been purchased with money earned through illegal activities. The Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives does its fair share of property confiscation, working with other police agencies disarming those that cross the government. Federal asset forfeiture laws allow the “police” agencies to profit from taking property from just about anyone. Plank 5 - Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly. Very simply, the Federal Reserve. Every state bank is connected to the federal system. The Federal Reserve issues currency, even though it now only produces fiat currency. This plank is a little different; the Federal Reserve is a private company that the government gave power over the United States economy. Through the manipulation of interest rates and “printing” of money, the Federal Reserve creates the boom/bust cycles that create depressions. The Federal Reserve was created in 1913 to prevent economic downturns and actually does the exact opposite. The manipulation of economic indicators presents false data that distorts the law of supply and demand. These indictors promote borrowing which creates a bubble that eventually will burst. Look at the housing bubble that caused the Great Recession. Plank 6 - Centralization of the means of communications and transportation in the hands of the State. America has the Federal Communications Commission, the Department of Transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration and DOT regulations. The Federal Communications Commission is in charge of all communications throughout the country, they regulate phones, radios, cable television, and satellite. Now they are even grabbing control of the internet. The FEC regulates what a television program can say and do, what a radio station can broadcast. They are also promote competition through such scams as net neutrality and just recently obtained the power to shut down the internet in what the government may determine as a national emergency. The Department of Transportation created a national highway system that criss crosses the country and keeps the authority to shut them down and use them for government purposes. The DOT also forces states to comply with federal regulations by withholding funds until compliance and regulates all vehicles on the road. Plank 7 - Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state, the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan. This is easily seen in these as well as the Department of Commerce and Labor, Department of Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Mines, National Park Service, and the IRS control of business through corporate regulations. The Environmental Protection Agency by far goes the farthest to implement the business crushing agenda of the central government, through regulation, basing most on politically motivated “research.” The Department of Labor is not innocent in the crushing of business, think about the case of Boeing being attacked by the Department of Labor because of its chosen location to open a new manufacturing plant. These executive branch agencies have one purpose, to regulate business; to make business comply with ridiculous rules and regulations that drain their coffers while enriching government. Plank 8 - Equal liability of all to labor. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture. In America, we call this minimum wage, favored nation, Department of Labor, Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce and national unions. The minimum wage laws disproportionately harm the low/non-skilled workers by pricing them out of the labor market. The equality of labor can be seen best in the national unions, more specifically, public sector unions. Think back to the death care bill debate, you see the seas of purple and red shirted union members; many bussed in to try and pressure/coerce others into their way of thinking. The same can be seen at the Walker recall election in Wisconsin, bully tactics, intimidation, property damage, assaults all promoted by the unions. The biggest problem with public sector unions is they negotiate with the very politicians they put in office, at the expense of the tax payer. Look at the financial trouble many states are in because of the promises made to unions with unsustainable pensions. Plank 9 - Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries, gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equitable distribution of population over the country. America has the Planning Reorganization Act, Zoning laws, corporate super farms. Zoning laws are created by government to control the people. Want to have horses on your property, too bad, you’re not zoned for that. Want to run a business out of your garage, better check the zoning laws. Zoning laws are governments way of making everyone live in a certain area, allows where and what type of business can be opened. Corporate super farms also help blur the lines of urban and rural by bringing big corporations and their employees out to the country where the crops are grown, processed and shipped throughout the country. What used to be family farms has been overtaken by corporations and their political cronies. Plank 10 - Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production. In America, we have the Department of Education, the teachers unions, and common core. Education in America has been in decline shortly after the creation Federal Department of Education. When the students can’t do the work, the government throws more money at it and changes the standards. Kids can’t do the math, let’s lower the standard. Kids can’t understand English, let’s lower the standards. Programs like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, create corruption as teachers teach to the test or like in Atlanta were caught changing the tests after they were turned in. Now we have Common Core, where the federal government is going as far as sending out curriculum and suggested lesson plans and discussion questions. By looking at the new textbooks, it easy to spot the propaganda and now it seems that the education department is more concerned with producing loyal “subjects” than thinking citizens.

United Police States of America

The United States was founded on the Constitution as the law of the land, followed quickly by the Bill of Rights. The Constitution was meant to restrain the government, keep it limited and protect the natural rights of the individual. While the Constitution has been under assault since the ratification, the rise of the US police state has put many more of our natural rights at risk from an overreaching government. While the commerce clause or the general welfare clause has been consistently misinterpreted, with the exception of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the US Constitution, most of the Bill of Rights has remained intact, recently we have witnessed the erosion of our Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and even the Eighth Amendments. These are mainly our protections against government intrusions. They deal with such important things as privacy against unreasonable searches, right to due process, self-incrimination, rights of the accused and the forbidding excessive fines, bail and cruel punishments. With the passage of the PATRIOT ACT, the government was given the power to claim someone an enemy combatant, even an American citizen and violate such rights as speedy trial, due process, right to counsel and even the right to confront the accuser. Then add in the NDAA, which gave the government even more power over our natural rights as humans. With these two laws, we lose our right to be secure in our own possessions; the government can write their own search warrants, refuse due process and invoke gag orders on everyone involved, even your bank or utility company. As if that is not bad enough, we have seen the militarization of our local and federal police forces. Think about the manhunt in Boston for the marathon bomber. The entire area was under martial law as the police shut down the entire city to search for a single suspect. Police in military gear and military grade weapons went door to door unlawfully searching houses and this wasn’t the first time. Think back to the ex LAPD officer, where again police in military gear went searching house to house for a single suspect, shutting down the tourist town of Big Bear. Not only have police departments been going military style, but our very own Department of Homeland Security, which in reality, does nothing that other agencies haven’t be doing. Their mission claims that their goal is secure our nation from the many threats we face, but they don’t handle our borders or immigration. They don’t investigate or arrest criminals or terrorists and they don’t handle economic or cyber issues, there is a department for that as well, so what is their “mission”? The Department of Homeland Security has recently purchased millions of rounds of ammo and armored troop transports, but for use on whom? Even if you are not targeted by the police, you can still have some encounters with police that never end well for citizens. SWAT raids targeting the wrong house have resulted in family dogs being killed, people being injured and in some cases even killed, all because of bad information. There is even one instance, in Henderson, where were denied entry into a private residence. Police wanted to use the residence as a staging area for a potential crime happening next door. What did the police do? They broke into the house, arrested the occupants and unlawfully searched and occupied the house. The rise of a militarized police force should raise concern for everyone. Were the actions in Big Bear and Boston preparing us a more militarized society, where police armed with machine guns patrol the streets in armored vehicles breaking down doors of innocent civilians? How much is enough? For links and sources click here.

Welcome to Orwell's 1984

Thirty years ago, the communists were the enemy and they resided in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. We made fun of them, how the government controlled every aspect of their lives, how people were starving, living in poverty and relied on the benevolent communist regime to survive. The communist regime controlled the media and the schools. If you weren’t happy, you better keep that to yourself because you could be sure that the regime was listening and you might receive a visit from the KGB and be locked away without a trial. In America, we are freedom, liberty loving people and that could never happen here. Well look at how far we have fallen. We have gone from a country founded on the individual to a country of sheeple. No longer is individual initiative rewarded, it is punished. Rewards are dished out to those that use the system. President Kennedy’s famous quote, “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country” has been transformed. Now it’s more like, “ask not what you can do for your country but what your country can give to you.” With nearly 50 million people dependent on the government, millions more living in poverty and a government system that perpetuates the cycle of generational poverty. The main stream media has long promoted the government’s position, most recently look at the media’s worship of the current president and what are government ran schools teaching our students? If you look at our rankings in education, we are dropping in the world rankings. What should have all Americans up in arms and seriously questioning their government’s actions is the latest spying scandals that have been uncovered. It starts small, with the Internal Revenue Service targeting certain groups for no other reason than their name. Prying into areas where they have no business, such as what books they read or the content of their prayers. Then it gets a little wider, like Verizon turning over all of their customers phone records to the National Security Agency in the name of fighting terrorism. Of course the National Spying Agency claims that they are just storing the data, not listening to actual phone calls, like that is supposed to make it okay. If that was all the government was doing that would be bad enough, but it’s not. The government has also been collecting internet traffic from companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook, but it’s only to keep you safe. If all of that doesn’t make you feel safe, don’t worry, there are now streetlights that will help keep you safe. They are smart streetlights and are they are being tested in the United States; these have the ability to record audio and video as well as broadcast messages. All of these invasions of privacy are not based on any sort of probable cause, are not issued by a judge and are illegal according to the Fourth Amendment to our Constitution. Benjamin Franklin is credited with the quotation, "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." This is not a left or right issue or a republican/democrat issue, it’s an American issue. When we lose the foundation on which our country was founded, we are no longer free. The question is how many more intrusions of our freedom before you take a stand? Please click here to see article with links.

Free speech, but for how long

Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller has continued his assault on the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. For the past few legislative sessions, Ross Miller has pushed to get a specific piece of legislation through the legislature. He claims this legislation is to push for more transparency, but transparency for who is the question. NRS 294A.348 was the result and on the surface it looks innocent enough, but let’s look a little deeper. NRS 294A.348 requires that anyone spending more than $100, owning a public website or sends out mass emails to more than 500, must be registered with the Secretary of State’s office as a political action committee and must disclose their identity. This is not related to campaign donations, finance or contribution limits, it’s about free speech. If a person wants to take out an ad in a newspaper, or radio, if he mentions a candidate or asks for a donation, the person/group/PAC must be disclosed and be easily identifying to the general public. The First Amendment of the Constitution protects free speech and even though it has been upheld by courts throughout the history of our country and even prior to the founding, Ross Miller continues to assault free speech. It does not even matter that this law is in direct conflict with a court ruling overturning a very similar law just a few years ago. What’s the big deal, you say? We should know who is behind the message. But what about when the person behind the message may create an automatic bias towards the issue or candidate? Say, for example, limited government group wanted to send out flyers supporting a candidate but because of the name of the group (think IRS targeting groups with Tea Party in their name) anyone with an unfavorable view of that group will dismiss the message because of the messenger and not necessarily because of the message. Let’s take a look at the historical significance of anonymous political speech, think the Federalist Papers; arguments for the ratification of the US constitution. These were written by Publius, which turned out to be John Jay, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. These men wanted their arguments sway opinion, not who they were. The message was more important than the messenger. The anti-federalists did the same thing, only their identities have never been proven. Throughout the history of our nation, political speech has been protected by courts on all levels, it’s sad to see politicians trying to destroy this basic natural right. A law passed congress that allows the Secret Service to designate “no free speech” zones, where you can be jailed and charged with a felony for exercising your natural right too close to someone the Secret Service may be protecting. It also extends to any event the government may decide, like the Super Bowl or National Championship Basketball game, which means if you don’t stay out of the “no free speech” zone (which now has no set dimensions and can be moving); you can be jailed and charged with a felony. Free speech has been protected by the First Amendment in America…so far. Please click here for links and resources.